Vogue 1224 Tracy Reese for Megan & KS 3811 for Sophie

Like everyone else I liked the look of this pattern Vogue 1224 by Tracy Reese. I saw it on Erica B's blog and GiGi Sew's blog and just had to make it for one of the girls. I showed to Megan and she loved it. I happened to have a piece of fabric I had ordered for undies that she liked and wanted me to use. It was very bright yellow and purple print that I was a little leary of. I not only had enough for the dress but also enough scraps to cut a little matching onesie out for Megan's daughter Sophie with Kwik Sew 3811. She's not sure she's in love with it but she's going to wear it. Sophie's onesie was cut out with a 6-12 months width and 12-18 month length. It's a little snug in the sleeves so I'm going to remove them and either make it sleeveless or replace with larger sleeve. The Tracy Reese dress goes together so quickly. I like the way it isn't tight in the front but is more fitted in the back. My daughter Judy and my daughter in law Liz both want one in thier size. I'm glad it was simple.

And a picture of Judy wearing Vogue 8679.

Vogue 8724 Custom Fit Cups- for Megan

I made Vogue 8724 for my daughter Megan. Whom I usually have to do a FBA for. I used this pattern with the D cup and only a minor pattern adjustment to the neckline that I do to all of Megan's patterns. She always has gaps at the neckline. I use the french curve to mark the neckline then foldover a 1/4". I use to just fold in a little pleat in the pattern but this works much better and lies smoothly. This dress went together quickly and fit her perfectly. This will become a TNT for Megan. She loves this style and often buys this style dress. I had a bunch of fabric left so made this matching romper for Sophie June. I couldn't find a pattern that was what I wanted so I just took a vintage romper pattern and used the general shape and changed it at the top. The picture of Megan in the dress are before I hemmed it and finished the neckline. I used my coverstitch machine to hem it. I took two inches out of the length but it was still long. Mr. Finnegan wanted in on the photo shoot. He's six monthes old this coming week. He's a really playful fun kitten.

Kwik Sew 3675- Way too Big

I made this dress for Megan, thought it would work well since she's nursing. I went by her measurments but it's huge on her. I guess I just wasn't thinking and used her full bust measurement to choose the size. Poor Megan wears a 34F when she's not nursing so you can imagine how big her bust is with nursing. It just was way to big. I'm hoping it will fit someone else. I'm going to make it again in a smaller size. The material is a Rayon Knit blend from fabric.com.

Necrotizing Fasciitis- Scary Nightmare

My daughter Megan gave birth on Feb 10th by C-section. Everything seemed fine when we went home a few days later on Friday. But not for long. She started running fever even though she was taking 800 mg of Motrin and Tylonel Number 3 for pain. I made her call the OB on Monday morning and she went into see her. Her stomach was very swollen, more pain then you would expect, fever and felt crappy. She said Megan had a uterine infection and told her the conservative thing to do would be to hospitalize her but she decided to let her take antibiotics at home for a few days. Her temp continued to spike so they hospitalized her and they were giving her IV antibiotics. On Friday morning with fever spiking over 103 and her stomach very hard they called in an Infectios Disease OB/Gyn specialist. He stuck a needle into her incision and withdrew a sample to culture. They also did a CAT scan. It showed a large mass on her abdominal wall- a hematoma which is a blood filled clot. He came back and bluntly told us that Megan had the worst bacteria Clostidium and also two other Strep bacteria. That this was very serious and that the bacteria would be eating away at her insides. The good news was that it was not on her organs only the abdominal wall. But they had to take her to surgery now and he said it would be a hard road and she was in serious trouble. They asked her if she had a living will and who she wanted to have the baby if she didn't survive. So completely unexpected and the most fightening thing to hear. I was alone because she lives in a different city and my family wasn't there. I texted my husband and just told him she had a serious bacteria and they were doing surgery. I didn't want him driving like a crazy man if he knew what he really said. Then I called my son and lost it, poor kid, but he has a biology/chem degree and I knew he would know about it and understand my extreme fear. I also called my go to person my SIL and lost it again. I wanted them all to be there so bad, being alone is awful. Then I couldn't find her husband. I called cell and work with no luck. So finally thought to call his dad and he went to his work and told him. The doctor came back a couple of hours later and said she had Necrotizing Fasciitis and they had to remove all the dead tissue and they put a graft of pig intestine material to help promote the fascia cells to grow. They leave the wound open so that it heals from the inside out. She seemed fine when she got out of recovery but then her blood pressure dropped and they put in a PICC line and gave her a blood transfusion. She was in ICU for four days and while she was feeling awful she didn't do to bad about not seeing the baby, but after a few days when she felt stronger she just got so upset about not having the baby. It was so sad to see her so sick and crying for her baby. When she finally got to hold Sophie it was such a heart warming sight (picture above). They kept her for two weeks counting the ICU time and then we finally got to go home. I thought everything was fine and all she had to do was wait for the wound to heal but the morning we left he told her she wasn't out of the woods yet. So now this very nervous Mom is crazy with worry. She's gone 5 days with no temp at all so I figure everyday with no temp has to be good. Can't wait for several months to go by so I can loose this ball of fear in my stomach. But I've had time to think about some of the decisions we make with out thinking when we go into surgery. Megan allowed students in during her C-section and donated her cord blood which required that person to be in her surgery, and while it seems like the right thing to do I now think I would never allow anyone besides the needed personel in the operating room. Additional people add up to additional risk of infection. We will never know why or how she aquired the bacteria but I assume it was from the hospital. Having stayed almost three weeks at that hospital I watched nurses not follow procedure about 5% of the time. Most do everything they should but not all of them. Some didn't flush her PICC line before or after using it. Some would clean her wound with gloves and leave them on searching for more sterile material with dirty gloves. I saw one use a cotton swab that had already touched the wound and contaminate the tube of petrolium jelly that they put around the edges of the wound. My dad's a vet and he wouldn't do that on a dog. So while 95% of the time it's done correctly it's not hard to believe that maybe the day the OR was cleaned for Megan's C-section someone didn't do it correctly. But there is not much you can do about it but thank God she's here and didn't have anything worse than she did. It's an awful bacteria and she was actually very lucky.

New Knit Skirts

Some knit skirts I made on "skirt day"
My daughter and I were supposed to do "skirt day" together... but all she did was watch me... and ask for skirts.

This one is a maternity skirt that I made for Megan who is due in March. I've got two more of these half made. I made these same skirts for my daughter Nicole and both daughter in laws when they were preggers. They loved them and wore them afterwards when they were in between sizes. It's Simplicity 4704. It's a winner.

and these two are for my daughter in law Sharon.

I also made one for my daughter, Nicole, but I can't seem to find the picture. It's out of the same fabric as the maternity one... she calls it her Disco Barbie skirt. What can I say if there is such a thing as a Peter Pan girl- it's Nicole. It's New Look 6901
still need to make Sharon one more and Liz one. It's not that Sharon is my favorite but she goes to church every Sunday and wears skirts.
and... since it's cats and calico
here's a picture of my little baby Huckleberry shoving his grown up kitty body in a little box. I guess the $45.00 heated cat bed was a complete waste of money. ha ha

Judy's Garden Party Test Tank

I found this fabric at one of the fabric outlets down off Harry Hines in Dallas. I go with my daughter about once a year to have fun spending money on lots of unusual fabric. There are many shops with designer left overs or over runs and lots of cheap fabric mixed in. This was a rectangle printed on white fabric that the man running the shop said was test to see if they wanted to print a whole fun. I wish they would have had more than one test of it but bought it because I thought it was so pretty. Took me awhile to find something to match it. But finally found this coral knit at fabric.com. This is an OOP pattern Simplicity 4192 . This tank runs really short and Judy runs really tall. The first time I made it for her I added 4" of length. This time I added 8" of length. We both love it. Been so busy with work and the grandkids visiting been a little naughty about blogging this past week. I made four skirts this weekend. Two for my daughter in law. One for my daughter Nicole and one for my newly pregnant daughter Megan. Looks like we've got a honeymoon baby. She couldn't believe she could be pregnant and she did 5 pregnancy test. But a trip to the doctor and a sonogram showed a seven week fetus. She's due March 10th and this will be grandbaby number nine. We've so excited for them.

Progress on Wedding Dress

Well it's starting to come together. You can see the kitties are giving me some unasked for or wanted help. I've got the entire bottom done- 32 pieces (including underlining and 5 pieces for lining, 6 pieces for waist and 12 pieces for top- grand total of 55 pieces. I thought it was only 50 but forgot the lining for the bottom. Megan is going to come in this weekend so will get to fit her and finish sooner than I thought. Thank goodness. I've got the bottom pressed and ready to fit. The waistband is pleated and pressed. The top is pressed and lined. Hope it fits. I did the full bust adjustment by putting up to another bodice I had adjusted for her for another dress. I'll let you know how it fits when she gets here. My oldest daughter, son in law, 2 cats and thier three kids will be coming in tommorow or saturday from Arkansas. Can't wait to see everybody and will enjoy the craziness, loudness and mess while everyone is here.

Huckleberry & Miss Kitty- Sewing helpers

These are two of my helpers. Huckleberry is a year old seal point siamese(the big chubby one) who loves to taste the patterns, check out the drape in the fabric and eat thread. Miss Kitty is 11 year old seal point siamese (tiny little girl -a whole 6 pounds- the eternal kitten) who thinks all patterns and fabric need to be warmed with her body heat before they can be used.


And this is Cowin J Pussycat most likely the naughtest cat in the world. He's mean to Miss Kitty, he has potty accidents sometimes and he knocks over any cup within a hundred miles. He's lucky to be breathing most days. I got stuck with him, he's actually my daughter Megan's cat. But she didn't want him because he's so naughty. I hope when she gets married next week and they have children they don't give them away because they are to naughty.